1 Cup Epsom Salts Per Plant - REALLY?? - Page 5

z_willus_d · January 8, 2012

Ray, it's been a while since we saw an update on your experiments. How did the graduated ES-application Celery containers fare? How about the A-B on tomatoes? Regardless of increased green growth, did you see improve productivity?

Thanks,
Naysen

rnewste · January 8, 2012

Naysen,

Good and bad results. The "good" was that I had a huge crop of Early Girl tomatoes in the EarthTainer with one Cup of Epsom Salts per plant. The "bad" news was that I had a much higher than usual percentage of these tomatoes with BER.

So net - net, I am backing off next Season to adding perhaps 1/8 Cup per plant mixed into the Potting Mix at planting time.

On the other hand, the trial with adding in "The Snack" (calcium nitrate) went very well, and the plants are still vigorous today, cranking out tomatoes on January 8.

Raybo

fortyonenorth · January 8, 2012

Ray,

Your tests are always instructive. Excess magnesium will tie-up calcium, so your results make total sense.

41N

rnewste · January 8, 2012

Naysen,

Here is a photo taken today of the Celery:

The one on the left had 2 Cups Epsom Salts, the center 'Tainer had 1 Cup, while the 'Tainer on the right contained 1/2 Cup. If you compare today's photo with the one in my post #45, proportionally to the height of the seedlings then, I conclude virtually no delta between them.

Conclusion: Adding any more than 1/2 cup Epsom Salts saw no real advantage in growth. One could even debate if adding the 1/2 cup had any direct impact at all. Bottom line - I will add 1/2 Cup to all of the CeleryTainers next Season.

Raybo

z_willus_d · January 8, 2012

Thanks for following up on the experiments Ray. I find myself playing catchup on all these old Tainer and Myth-buster threads, as I wasn't really in the SWC game one, two years ago. It's great to have a site like this to catalog and archive all this information and knowledge.
-naysen

bughunter99 · January 28, 2012

Pity you were not able to have a fourth container growing. A true control, that received no epsom salts at all.

Stacy

livinonfaith · January 30, 2012

Just saw this thread, Raybo. It looks like you had great luck with the Epsom salts, but I would advise people to be careful, especially if they are planting in soil that hasn't been tested.

Last Spring I also read a lot about Epsom salts as fertilizer and I, too, wanted to try it out. One of the sources suggested using it as a spray for the foliage. You were supposed to spray it shortly after transplant and then again when the plants started really getting flowers. I can't remember the exact mixture I used, but I don't believe it was much more than a cup and a half in an entire sprayer. (For twenty plants)

I sprayed them the first time and all was well. All of the plants continued to grow well and started to set nice amounts of flowers. So i went back to spray them again. I'm a little like you. I wanted to see what the difference was between spraying them once and spraying them twice, so I only sprayed half (the back row) of the tomatoes and peppers the second time.

Out of those tomatoes that I sprayed the second time, I only got three fruits. From ten plants. (and those three were very late in the season.) The flowers formed normally, but would never set. Most of the plants looked fine. They just didn't produce diddly squat. It was horribly frustrating and I will never do that again! Thank goodness I decided to compare the two rows or I wouldn't have had any harvest to speak of!

It didn't seem to hurt the peppers that much, although the back row (sprayed twice) was little more sparse than the front row.

Anyway, that was my experience. I wonder if the problem was using it as a direct foliage spray? Maybe it absorbs too much too quickly that way.

dustyrivergarden · January 31, 2012

good job I really enjoyed the thread.

January 30, 2012	#67
livinonfaith Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina Posts: 1,332	Just saw this thread, Raybo. It looks like you had great luck with the Epsom salts, but I would advise people to be careful, especially if they are planting in soil that hasn't been tested. Last Spring I also read a lot about Epsom salts as fertilizer and I, too, wanted to try it out. One of the sources suggested using it as a spray for the foliage. You were supposed to spray it shortly after transplant and then again when the plants started really getting flowers. I can't remember the exact mixture I used, but I don't believe it was much more than a cup and a half in an entire sprayer. (For twenty plants) I sprayed them the first time and all was well. All of the plants continued to grow well and started to set nice amounts of flowers. So i went back to spray them again. I'm a little like you. I wanted to see what the difference was between spraying them once and spraying them twice, so I only sprayed half (the back row) of the tomatoes and peppers the second time. Out of those tomatoes that I sprayed the second time, I only got three fruits. From ten plants. (and those three were very late in the season.) The flowers formed normally, but would never set. Most of the plants looked fine. They just didn't produce diddly squat. It was horribly frustrating and I will never do that again! Thank goodness I decided to compare the two rows or I wouldn't have had any harvest to speak of! It didn't seem to hurt the peppers that much, although the back row (sprayed twice) was little more sparse than the front row. Anyway, that was my experience. I wonder if the problem was using it as a direct foliage spray? Maybe it absorbs too much too quickly that way. Last edited by livinonfaith; January 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM. Reason: spelling

January 31, 2012	#68
dustyrivergarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Holbrook, Az zone 5 Posts: 157	good job I really enjoyed the thread. __________________ “The yield of a crop is LIMITED by the deficiency of any one element even though all of the other necessary elements are present in adequate amounts”. J. Von Liebig's law of the minimum.

January 8, 2012	#61
z_willus_d Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA Posts: 1,313	Ray, it's been a while since we saw an update on your experiments. How did the graduated ES-application Celery containers fare? How about the A-B on tomatoes? Regardless of increased green growth, did you see improve productivity? Thanks, Naysen

January 8, 2012	#62
rnewste Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Campbell, CA Posts: 4,064	Naysen, Good and bad results. The "good" was that I had a huge crop of Early Girl tomatoes in the EarthTainer with one Cup of Epsom Salts per plant. The "bad" news was that I had a much higher than usual percentage of these tomatoes with BER. So net - net, I am backing off next Season to adding perhaps 1/8 Cup per plant mixed into the Potting Mix at planting time. On the other hand, the trial with adding in "The Snack" (calcium nitrate) went very well, and the plants are still vigorous today, cranking out tomatoes on January 8. Raybo

January 8, 2012	#63
fortyonenorth Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 1,150	Ray, Your tests are always instructive. Excess magnesium will tie-up calcium, so your results make total sense. 41N

January 28, 2012	#66
bughunter99 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: zone 5 Posts: 821	Pity you were not able to have a fourth container growing. A true control, that received no epsom salts at all. Stacy